from the islands press

From The Samoa Times, Apia The telephone bills recently issued by the Post Office have brought a number of complaints.

One of these was directed at the way the bills themselves were distributed. Instead of delivering them subscribers were asked to come and collect them. Subscribers who questioned the change in the system were rudely told that either they collected the bills or their phones would be cut.

From The Tonga Chronicle, Nukualofa Growers should continue efforts to improve the appearance of their bananas, as New Zealand housewives buy bananas more for their beauty than their sweetness.

This advice comes from John McLaughlan, South Island manager of Fruit-Distributors Ltd., the New Zealand importer of Tongan bananas.

From the University of the South Pacific Bulletin, Suva University residential student population is composed of a very high percentage of disciplined persons with respect to alcohol and tobacco, and generally spend very little of the money which is at their disposal on the two items. This was revealed in a recently conducted survey which attempted to gauge student habits with respect to alcohol and tobacco . . .

Almost 50 per cent of respondents professed that they neither drank nor smoked while 23 per cent answered that they both drank and smoked.

From the Marianas Variety & News, Saipan SAIPAN The shift to self-government under Commonwealth status did not limit its effects to the politics system in the Northern Marianas: it also led to more divorces between 1978 and 1981.

This was one of the findings of a study on marriage and divorce in the Northern Marianas from 1963 to 1983 conducted by Richard D. Shewman of the Criminal Justice Planning Agency ... He attributed the fluctuation to the economic and political instability during that period.

From the Cook Islands News, Rarotonga A ten-man team of Government workers from the Outer Islands, Fisheries and Conservation department here, reported via Peacesat yesterday, that a school of Papera sharks might have foiled attempts by Tahitian yachts to land on Suwarrow.

A spokesman for the group said they observed one papera measuring twenty feet long, attacking a dinghy from one of the yachts.

The five yachts left before the Government team could question them.

From the Cook Islands News, Rarotonga The housemaids of a prominent motel at Arorangi who staged a walkout last Thursday, said Director and Inspector of Labour Mrs Akaiti Ama, did have a valid complaint during a CIN telephone interview yesterday.

Mrs Ama said the housemaids had complained that their wages were “docked” without prior explanation by the Manager.

They also complained about the lack of staff quarters resulting in what some pointed out as the humiliating act of sleeping in wheelbarrows.

From the American Samoa News Bulletin, Pago Pago George Bird Siaosi also known as Ox has been charged with second degree burglary. He is alleged to have stolen a record

player and speaker from a house in Malaloa, March 15 and then selling the stolen items in exchange for a bag of marijuana.

What Solomon Islands Finance Minister George Kejoa thinks about the Public Service, as reported by the Government Monthly, Honiara In his opening speech, the Minister described the Public Service as “a monster with fifteen heads (ministries) feeding off the country’s revenues, providing diminishing services, and leaving little for development.”

Every year the proportion of our recurrent budget devoured by this monster increased, he told MPs. It was already over 60%.

From a letter in The Fiji Times, Suva from Asha Singh (Mrs) Sir, Air Pacific has once again advertised for flight attendants, and according to what I saw at the Olympic pool last week, it makes you wonder, who chooses the applicants.

Some of them looked as if they had just come from “out of the jungle” with no dress sense at all, no class whatsoever . . .

Another thing which Air Pacific should do is to make every girl sign a contract that she will not get pregnant for at least two years after joining, as a lot of money is spent on training the new recruit.